脊髓神经前体细胞由形成运动神经元转为形成少突胶质细胞的机制的研究进展

Advances in motor neuron-oligodendrocyte developmental fate switch in spinal cords

少突胶质细胞主要围绕神经元轴突形成髓鞘,能几十倍地加快神经冲动的传导速度,它的异常会严重影响人的行动和健康,因此对其发育的研究显得极为重要。最近的研究显示脊髓中绝大部分少突胶质细胞和运动神经元先后由相同的神经前体细胞区产生。然而,对脊髓神经干细胞如何有秩序地先后产生这两种不同细胞的具体机制还不清楚。基于近年来的研究进展,对运动神经元和少突胶质细胞发育上的关系以及其发育命运转变的机制进行探讨。

Oligodendrocytes wrap around the neuron axons to form myelin sheath which could accelerate the conduction velocity of nerve impulses by dozens of times. Oligodendrocytes abnormalities will seriously affect people＇s actions and health, therefore the researches on oligodendrocyte development are becoming particularly important. Present findings show that motor neurons and the majority of oligodendrocytes are sequentially produced from the same domain of spinal cords. However, one remaining outstanding question is how the neuron progenitor cells switch their development fate from motor neuron genesis to oligodendrocyte genesis regularly. Basing on the mounting researches in recent years, we here review the advances in the relationship between the genesis of motor neurons and oligodendrocytes and the mechanism of their developmental fate switch.